Summer brings us many things; longer days, a break from school and an excuse to get outside with family and friends. However, for most people, summer means hot, sticky temperatures. It is not always easy to enjoy summer when it is 100+ degrees outside and record breaking temperatures can be hazardous to your health. Luckily the 5-hour ENERGY® team has done our homework on ways for you to stay cool this summer-check it out!

Choose the right clothing
The type of clothing you wear during these hot summer days can be the deciding factor on whether you will be hot or cool. Wearing loosely woven natural fabrics, like cotton and silk, instead of heavier artificial fibers, such as rayon and polyester, will keep you cooler. No matter what material of clothing you wear, be sure to choose light colored clothes. Colors like white and yellow naturally reflect sunlight while black and dark blue will just absorb light and attract unnecessary heat to your body.

Think out your workouts
If you do your workouts outdoors, it might be necessary to alter them for the hot and humid days of summer. An easy way to do this is to simply adjust the time of day you do your workout. Early mornings and late evenings are the two coolest times of summer days.

Another easy way to adjust your fitness plan for summer is by switching to swimming. The heat and humidity of summer months can make activities like running very difficult, but swimming is a good way to provide you with a full-body workout while staying cool. Bonus: swimming utilizes muscles you may not already be using during your normal work out routines.

Drink lots of water
You always hear how important it is to stay hydrated and drink lots of water, but that’s because it is crucial. Eight glasses of water a day is the minimum during any given day, but the heat and sweat that summer brings requires you to drink more than that. Freezing your water bottles will keep your water nice and cold so you can stay refreshed and hydrated even when you’re on the go.

Keep your house cool
Regardless of if you have air conditioning or not, there are certain steps you can take to keep your house cool. First, closing blinds and curtains during the day will help block the hot sunlight from entering your home. Next, have ceiling fans or oscillating fans on to circulate air throughout your house. Finally, avoid using your stove or oven because they add unnecessary heat to your house. It is inevitable that you will need to use your stove, but cook during cooler times of the day or eat cold foods to reduce the number of times you heat up your stove.

Treat yourself to air conditioning
Scorching hot days can be unbearable, but what do you do if you don’t have air conditioning? If your house isn’t the place to retreat and cool down, plan an afternoon out to a public place that is air conditioned. Some places could include the mall, the public library, your favorite restaurant or the movie theater.

Water is for more than drinking
In the summer, water will be your best friend. Not only do you drink it to keep your body healthy, but you can also use it to keep your body cool. Take a trip to your city’s community pool for an afternoon of swimming. If there isn’t a swimming pool where you live, try wrapping a wet bandana around your head and re-wet it throughout the day. Misting spray fans are also a good tool to keep you cool.

These are just a few tips to keep you as cool as possible this summer. Take summer one day at a time, because each day is different. Some days you will want to get outside and enjoy the beautiful summer weather while other days are so hot that you’ll just want to stay inside. On days with record breaking temperatures you will probably want to avoid any activity in direct sunlight or on radiating asphalt surfaces. It’s important to use common sense and know your body. What steps do you take to stay cool?

The weekend NASCAR drivers are travelling to Speedway, Indiana to race at the highest capacity stadium facility in the world; the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). This massive speedway has the capability to seat more than 400,000 people! Reaching a distance of two and a half miles long, IMS is so large that Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum and Vatican City could all fit inside the oval, which covers 253 acres! Before Sunday's Brickyard 400 race, let's take a look back at this speedway's interesting history, traditions and records.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 and was the first racetrack to be titled a speedway, making it the original speedway. Since August 19, 1909, 248 automobile races have taken place at IMS, including the Indianapolis 500 and one of NASCAR's most popular races, the Brickyard 400. The Brickyard 400's first race brought in more than 250,000 spectators, the largest crowd to date to witness a NASCAR event!

You have probably heard of the Brickyard 400, but do you know where this race's name comes from? The term "brickyard" refers to the 3.2 million bricks that were used to pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in 1909. By 1961 the entire track was paved with asphalt with the exception of a one-yard strip of brick that remains at the track's start- finish line. This section of bricks is widely known today as the Yard of Bricks.

NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett began a Brickyard tradition that would soon catch on in the racing world. After winning the Brickyard 400 race in 1996, Jarrett and his crew chief Todd Parrott walked over to the start-finish line, knelt down and kissed the Yard of Bricks. This started a tradition that has carried on with NASCAR drivers ever since.

After winning the Brickyard 400’s first race on August 6, 1994, rookie NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon went on to prove that his Brickyard victory was not just beginner's luck. Gordon holds the track's record for the most victories (four), most top five finishes (10) and most top 10 finishes (13).

Indianapolis isn't called the racing capital of the world for nothing! The speedway got national recognition for its historical significance in 1975 when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was also designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It remains the only landmark to be affiliated with automotive racing. Now that you know more about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Brickyard 400, you can get ready for some high speed action at this weekend's race and help us cheer on 5-hour ENERGY®'s own Clint Bowyer!

Well fans, the second Featured Fan Contest of the year has come to a close! As usual, the 5-hour ENERGY® team was bombarded with many awesome submissions, but you know the rules…we can only pick a few winners! This time we narrowed the winners down even more and only named six fans to be 5-hour ENERGY®’s newest brand ambassadors.

To recap, we asked our fans to submit a description of why drinking 5-hour ENERGY® is important to them along with an action shot that included the energy shot. Your entries kept the 5-hour ENERGY® team busy! We reviewed several snapshots that featured many different kinds of fans, from full time students to full time office workers. Our six winners will be rewarded with 60 bottles of their favorite 5-hour ENERGY® flavor.

The full list of winners can be found on the 5-hour ENERGY® Website, but here’s a sample of some of the entries that blew us away:

Kayla Petit:I am a full time college student with a double major in Biology (pre-pt) and Public Health. Not only do I have a super demanding class schedule but I work for my schools Multimedia and Athletic Services Department writing news releases (that have strict deadlines) and am a member of the women's wrestling and soccer teams. Sometimes I have three practices in a day! Add in homework, laundry, meal time and I'm lucky if I get five hours of sleep. I am 5-hour ENERGY®’s biggest fan by far! I would never be able to make it through my long days without 5-hour ENERGY®'s Lemon-Lime energy shot! It gives me the energy I need to succeed, and helps me to focus and get the things I need to done. I love the taste and the only 4 calories are a huge plus with me being a wrestler! Thank you for a great product.

Peter Genovese:My name is Peter Genovese, I am a current Employee at Yahoo! Inc. I am also going to college full time as a Business Administration (Marketing) student. I go to class 8am-3pm then work 3:30pm-9:30pm Monday through Friday. I also hold positions on student government as well as many other clubs and organizations on campus. I attribute all of my success on both the work front and my academics to 5-hour ENERGY®. I take them every day and they give me the power I need to succeed.

Arielle TellinghusenI am a senior at Southwest Minnesota State University studying Psychology. I have a very active three-year old to keep up with, own my home, and work late nights bartending at a casino on the weekends. I couldn't do any of it without the help of Berry Extra Strength 5-hour ENERGY®! There are some nights I sleep with one in my bed and start my day with it before I even get out from underneath the covers. Then there are some Fridays that I have class all morning, homework all afternoon, and work from 6pm - 2:30am! I couldn't have accomplished all that I have these last two years without the added energy from 5-hour ENERGY®! THANK YOU!

Don’t worry if you didn’t win this time, fans! There is another Featured Fan Contest on the way, so stay tuned for more details!

Daytona International Speedway is home of "The Great American Race", the Daytona 500, which annually kicks off the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The 480-acre motorsports complex holds the most diverse schedule of racing events worldwide. It is no surprise the Daytona International Speedway has earned the title "World Center of Racing". In addition to being a key venue in the world of motorsports; hardly a week goes by when the grounds are not being used as a destination for a variety of activities, such as community events, social gatherings, car shows, and athletic games. Let's take a look back at the history of this world class destination, to see just how it all began…

In 1953 William France Sr., founder of NASCAR, began designing and planning for the Daytona track. After receiving funds from Pepsi-Cola, General Motor's designer Harley Earl, and a Texas oil millionaire, this multimillion dollar project for the construction of the 2.5-mile speedway broke ground on November 25, 1957. The Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959 with the capacity to hold 167,785 fans. The track lit up in 1998 after lights were installed around the course so NASCAR's Coke Zero 400 race could run at night. Today, Daytona International Speedway is the third largest single lit outdoor sports complex.

France aimed to go above and beyond just a paved flat straightaway track design and wanted the track to have the highest banking possible to allow for higher speeds and provide the fans with a better view of the cars. To build this high banking, an unimaginable amount of dirt had to be dug out from the tracks infield. Because of the area's high water table, the hole filled with water and formed what we now know as Lake Lloyd. The 29-acre Lake Lloyd has been put to good use, and has hosted powerboat racing in the past.

Daytona International Speedway features many track features that set it apart from the layouts of other race tracks. The 2.5-mile high-speed tri-oval is the primary layout of the track, and has 31° banking in the turns and 18° banking at the start/finish line. The track was repaved on July 15, 2010 due to the fact that the 2010 Daytona 500 race faced two long delays because of potholes in Turns 1 and 2.

The track also features infield road course layouts: a 3.81-mile course that is home to the sports car endurance race known as the Rolex 24 at Daytona; and a 2.95-mile course for motorcycles. In addition, the Daytona Flat Track is a quarter-mile karting and motorcycle course located outside Turns 1 and 2 in the West Lot, and opened in December 2009 just in-time for the World Karting Association KartWeek.

In 2004 the first major renovation of the track's infield took place, to create the Spirit Fanzone, a new vehicle and pedestrian tunnel under turn 1, a new walkway along the shore of Lake Lloyd, along with 34 new buildings. After facing multiple challenges during the renovation period, such as three hurricanes which caused flooding, the project received a 2005 Award for Excellence from Design-Build Institute of America.

The 5-hour ENERGY® team knows that we can't talk history without leaving you with a few record holding statistics! So here it goes: Dale Earnhardt holds the record for the most starts before winning, and the most times completing all 500 miles during the Daytona 500. While Richard Petty is the recorder holder for the most victories, and for the longest span between his first and last Daytona 500 victories (1964-81). Additionally, as of 2006 Mark Martin holds the track record on the 2.5-mile tri-oval with a race completion time of 1:42:18 and an average speed of 146.622mph.

Are you curious to learn more about the history of motorsports activity in the Daytona Beach area? Well, it's your lucky day! Daytona International Speedway offers three separate tours: a 90-minute All-Access tour, a 30-minutes Speedway tour, and a unique VIP three-hour tour. 5-hour ENERGY® Racing is proud to compete at the Daytona International Speedway throughout the season, and look forward to our next race there!